The Voyage of Alternatives
by Jessa L'Rynn
Summary: A cruise liner acquires a stowaway. The lounge singer doesn't know what to make of him when he knows her name and refuses to let go of her hand. Rose Tyler has never seen this "Doctor" fellow before. Has she? Lady Clark Weasley's July II Challenge.
1. Chapter 1

**As I am a professional writer and have work to do to get paid, I have decided to deal with these thudding plot bunnies in the traditional manner - I will inflict them on others. Please see my Profile for the Challenges of the Month. July Challenges are now available, and what a twist for one of them. If you'd rather do June's, instead, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks to all those who have participated thus far - we had an exceptional turn out for June II for example. The new challenges will run through the end of July. Please let me know when you respond to a Challenge so I can read and review.**

Lady Clark Weasley asked me to do this one and, although I normally hesitate to rewrite episodes, I agreed because of the challenge of it. Let me just state, very clearly: ASTRID IS NOT HERE. Her entire story line has been erased from this history. She decides to try it once, months later, meets a rich man who acquired some manners from some where, gets married and lives happily ever after. There will be no dead or even sort of dead pretty waitresses, except the ones who would have died anyway. Thank you.

_This one will be two or three parts, and all the action isn't going to be shown because I've narrowed the point of view down to what you don't know._

* * *

**The Voyage of Alternatives**

_Part 1: The Singer and the Stowaway_

The Doctor sighed and straightened the Tuxedo of Doom, watching the party as it circulated around him. There were worse places, he supposed, for an accidental arrival after all he had been through, so he resolved to enjoy himself. There was the concern, of course, the strange and jangling time lines around him, but so far the only thing he could find wrong was the name of the ship.

"'...wound up clinging to an iceberg and let me tell you, it wasn't half cold...'" He remembered saying that once, and this ship had been named after the one that had met the iceberg personally. He hesitated to guess what they were thinking.

A small brunette waitress wandered by, followed by a blonde girl in a short, sequin bedecked dress. The Doctor didn't get a look at her face but there was something...

He shrugged it off as an hallucination, the results of months of captivity, temporal distortions, being around Jack and... him... and losing his last companion, the one he never could quite deal with correctly. Instead, he walked up to a couple who were being laughed at by a group of wealthy people with nothing else to do with their time.

A quick flick of the sonic screwdriver, and the annoying crowd were having a champagne bath, and he was glad he could deliver a little bit of harmless justice where it needed to be sent.

_"...And the last words I heard him say were 'I shall return for you, my love, on Christmas Day.'" _

The Doctor stopped breathing, a buffalo wing half-way to his mouth, his eyes nearly bolting from his head. That voice. The singer. That _voice_... "Foon, Morvin," he said softly to the couple he was sitting with, "that singer. Is she blonde, small, fantastic?" He didn't dare turn around.

Martin cleared his throat. "I suppose," he said, glancing at his wife nervously. "If you like the type, yes."

"She's a lovely one, all right," agreed Foon. "Looks a bit lost, though, I'd say."

The Doctor sighed and, closing his eyes, turned his head.

_"...The night will come, but I don't sleep, as I watch the stars that lead him..."_

The Doctor forced his eyes open and, without even being aware of leaving his chair, found himself at the foot of the stage.

_"...I cannot place just where he is, but still my heart goes with him..."_

How he managed to listen to the rest of the song, he didn't know. He couldn't even imagine how he managed to stay still at all, when she was there, when her soft, beautiful, distant eyes were looking everywhere where but at him. The instant she closed her mouth, though, and the crowd applauded politely, the very second she stepped from the stage, he ran up to her and, unable to help himself, snatched her into a hug. "Rose," he whispered, fully intent to never let her go ever again. "My Rose."

She drew back from him and hit him full on the face. "Who are you?" she demanded.

He clutched at his jaw. She was definitely Jackie Tyler's daughter, no mistaking that. "Rose, it's me, it's the Doctor. What are you talking about?"

"What are you talking about?" she snapped back at him. "I've never seen you before in my life. What do you mean you're the Doctor? What sort of doctor? Which doctor?"

"Not this _again_!" he whinged. Taking a deep breath, he stared hard into her eyes. "I'm_ the_ Doctor." He cleared his throat and swallowed hard. "I'm _your_ Doctor," he added, softly, a terrible confession that he wouldn't have made before... before.

She blushed. "I... I don't need a doctor anymore," she whispered. "I'm fine. Go away before you get me in trouble."

"But Rose," he pleaded, reaching for her hand. She was gone before he managed to catch it.

Dejected, lost, hopeless, he wandered back to the table with the Von Hoff's and settled into the seat he had borrowed earlier. He helped himself to a buffalo wing, but he really didn't want it now.

"Didn't work out?" said Foon sympathetically. "You ought to be more subtle, really."

"She... she doesn't even recognize me." Something washed over him, anger, frustration, fury. "That's not right. She knows me... better than anyone. Something's happened, something's wrong."

He stood up, fully intent to tear the Universe apart if necessary to find out who was responsible for this and why. Rose Tyler might have been a shop girl in a former life, but she was the last person who should ever - ever - be a second string lounge singer on a Max Capricorn cruise ship.

There was an announcement, calling for certain red tickets. Foon and Morvin announced gleefully that they were going to Earth and asked if he was coming along.

The Doctor caught a glimpse of glittering blue sequins. Oh, but that was perfect. "Yep," he agreed. "Think that'll do to be getting started."

He walked over to where Rose was being insulted by a man in a tuxedo, which he was claiming was an Earth antique. This only served to convince the Doctor that something was completely and thoroughly wrong, because the Rose he knew would never have just stood there to take it. He glowered the man into silence and caught Rose's hand. "Run," he said.

She looked up at him and, just for a split second, her eyes lit up with something like recognition. It was all it took, and he ran with her to join the party heading to Earth. "The Doctor plus one," he announced, holding up his psychic paper. She looked at it in silent suspicion, but didn't question him, even when he fastened her teleport bracelet on without once releasing her hand.

It was only when the small, red cyborg arrived to join the party that he paid any attention to anything other than Rose, not even the man leading the group, who seemed to have cut and pasted his Earth history from a series of newspaper articles and an old song book.

"What are you doing?" Rose whispered as he tried to object to the presence of Balacappalata.

"Obviously not human," the Doctor said, "and we're going to London."

"London..." she mused. "I've never been there. What's it like?"

The teleport effect took them and they were, abruptly, in a shopping area of what looked like Chiswick. "You were born here," he said. "Lived the first nineteen years of your life here. What do you think?"

She frowned, that familiar look of concentration coming to her face. Oh, it hurt. "Are you sure?" she asked. "'Cuz, gotta tell you, it don't half stink, here."

The Doctor laughed. It echoed off the surrounding buildings. He realized, suddenly, that that was also very, very wrong. "Where is everyone?"

"Well," she observed. "It's Christmas. Maybe they all went home to do that turkey thing Mr. Copper is on about."

"No, trust me, these streets should be teeming with people." The Doctor sighed and noticed a news agent. Keeping Rose's hand tight in his, he meandered over and asked.

"Fled the city," said the old man who turned out to be pretty much the only person left in all of London, except for the Queen and her staff. He then proceeded to recite a list of the Doctor's Christmas misadventures and the Doctor risked a sheepish, apologetic smile at Rose.

"It should be fine this year," he assured the man. "Mystery's up there, not down here."

"It's them aliens," the old man assured him.

The teleport took them again. The Doctor wanted to curse. Rose wriggled away from him while Mr. Copper apologized. "Sorry, I'm on now," she said. "Thanks for the adventure. I always wanted..." She smiled, that wistful, distant smile that made his hearts ache and throb in his chest.

"You wanted to travel," he said. "Travel forever, see every star and planet in existence. I could take you, if you still want to go."

"I... I can't." She turned and disappeared into the crowd again, and the Doctor was left with nothing else to do but try to figure out the mystery of this one.

The first thing he did, therefore, was walk over to the nearest electronic portrait of Max Capricorn and, with a quick twitch of the sonic screwdriver, he was connected to the bridge computer.

What he saw nearly stopped his hearts. There were three meteoroids and they were heading directly for the ship. The shields were down, no chance that the ship could sustain an impact from even one of them. He got on the com to the bridge and realized pretty quickly that the Captain was not going to listen. The ship was going to be hit, everyone was going to die, and Rose, Rose who didn't seem to know him, Rose who was casually singing 'Winter Wonderland', Rose who was supposed to be safe, Rose was here.

Two officers came up to him, fully intent on dragging him away. He broke free, shouted that the ship was in danger, and ran to the stage. Rose stared at him, but got out of his way as he seized her microphone. "Everyone get to the lifeboats," he ordered.

The officers caught him again. He reached out to clutch at Rose's hand, but couldn't quite catch hold of her. "Look outside," he ordered to the staring crowds. The Von Hoffs and several others trailed after him, and he felt an enormous relief to realize that Rose was there.

"Leave 'im alone," she protested. "He just skipped his meds today, s'all," she insisted. "He's harmless."

"I most certainly am not, Rose Tyler," he protested.

She laughed, that fairy bell twinkle that set his hearts to glowing. "Good to know, Doctor."

"That's the spirit," he agreed. "Listen to me, the shields are down, you have got to get them up, because if you don't, those meteors will go through this ship like bullets through a tin can.

A man in a suit behind the party, which seemed to be the Doctor, Rose, the Von Hoffs, Balacappalata, and the two officers holding him shouted, "Oi, Steward, I am telling you, the shields are down!"

The meteors struck.


	2. Chapter 2

**As I am a professional writer and have work to do to get paid, I have decided to deal with these thudding plot bunnies in the traditional manner - I will inflict them on others. Please see my Profile for the Challenges of the Month. July Challenges are now available, and what a twist for one of them. If you'd rather do June's, instead, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks to all those who have participated thus far - we had an exceptional turn out for June II for example. The new challenges will run through the end of July. Please let me know when you respond to a Challenge so I can read and review.**

Lady Clark Weasley asked me to do this one and, although I normally hesitate to rewrite episodes, I agreed because of the challenge of it. Let me just state, very clearly: ASTRID IS NOT HERE. Her entire story line has been erased from this history. She decides to try it once, months later, meets a rich man who acquired some manners from some where, gets married and lives happily ever after. There will be no dead or even sort of dead pretty waitresses, except the ones who would have died anyway. Thank you.

_It looks like it will be in four parts (the subplot is taking more space than I thought), and all the action isn't going to be shown because I've narrowed the point of view down to what you don't know._

* * *

**The Voyage of Alternatives**

_Part II: The Doctor Takes Charge_

When the Titanic finally settled from the brutal impacts and repeated shocks, the Doctor discovered, though he wasn't particularly surprised, that he had Rose clutched tight to his chest. His arms were around her, her small body quaking against him. He touched her gently, verifying with his hands and his eyes that she was all right.

"Oi," she protested, shifting out of his grip, "I'm fine. Can you stand? Is everyone all right?"

He stood and lifted her up, setting her daintily on her feet, still going over her to make sure she wasn't bleeding. He turned to look around and spotted the other officer who had helped the Steward bring him down here, lying under a pile of rubble. He bent quickly, checked for a pulse. There wasn't one. The Steward was watching him and they both seemed to be old hands at calm in disasters after all, for the man took his point immediately when he shook his head. The Steward turned to quiet the screaming crowd while the Doctor looked around for the nearest, safest exit to the TARDIS.

"What was his name?" Rose asked, and checked the officer's name tag. The Doctor nodded at her silently as he filed the name. She shook her head sadly and looked at the body. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

Then, they both noticed that Mr. Copper seemed to be having trouble. Rose ran to the old man. "Doctor?" she asked.

The Doctor knelt and ran the sonic screwdriver over him, determined that this man would not survive the disaster only to die of a heart attack moments later. He wasn't paying attention, he should have been, but the Steward was backing toward the nearest connecting door. It should have taken him to another section of the interior hull but, unfortunately, that section of the ship had been blasted away and the safeties had been disengaged. The Doctor shouted protest, but too late, as the door opened and then was ripped off, dragged into space, the Steward with it.

"Hold on!" he shouted, as the cabin tried to empty itself into the bitter cold of endless space. He flung himself onto the control panel, clinging somewhat better than the humans could, because of his Time Lord strength. The sonic screwdriver activated the oxygen membrane and the wind died, the cold held at bay with it.

"Everyone all right? Rose?"

"Yeah," she said.

"Foon, Morvin?" a gasp and a wave from her, along with a nod from her husband. "Mr. Copper?" a quick nod. "Bannakaffalatta?" The cyborg, who had nearly joined the Steward, nodded and clutched to his little chest. "And you, what was your name?"

The man in the antique suit, who had insulted Rose earlier, nodded, straightening his tie. "Rickston Slade."

"You all right?" the Doctor asked.

"No thanks to that idiot," Slade replied.

"That man was just killed!" Rose protested.

"Then he's a dead idiot," Slade countered.

Rose's dark eyes caught fire. There was his girl. The Doctor almost managed a smile. "Oi!" Rose started.

"Not now, Rose. Just... not now." He looked out the oxygen shield and Rose joined him.

"How... how did this happen?" she asked.

"I don't think it was an accident," he replied. They stood in silence for a moment and then he felt her hand creep toward his. He took it without even a thought. This was how it was supposed to be. "I'll get you out of here, Rose, I promise."

"Don't worry about me, Doctor," she said. "Let's just... we need to help everyone we can, yeah? Any ideas?"

"Well, if we can get to reception, the TARDIS is..." He looked out through the shield. "The TARDIS is heading for Earth," he said, bitterly.

"The TARDIS?" she whispered, peering out at his precious blue box.

"You remember her?" the Doctor demanded.

"I... it's funny. I used to dream... I called the magic box in my dreams the TARDIS. It was..."

"Bigger on the inside?" the Doctor suggested.

"Yeah," she whispered. Then her eyes narrowed and she glared at him in suspicion. "How'd you know? Are you one of that lot? Have you been following me?"

"Rose, I don't know what's going on with you, but I'm your friend, your best friend. You can trust me, and I think deep down you know that!"

She looked deep into his eyes, the way she had that first day they stood, face to brand new face, him still in his old clothes, Rose half out of her mind with worry and fear and grief. He hadn't known what she was searching for then, and he didn't know what she saw now, but whatever it was, after a moment, she asked him, nervously, "What's my favorite color?"

He let out a startled chuff of exasperation. Not many people knew this was a trick question, because anyone would say pink without thinking. He knew better. "It's red," he said. "Used to be red, anyway, because it makes you feel special, when you wear red. And there was a bicycle, that was red. You used to ride it everywhere, hoping some day you could ride it straight to the stars." His eyes dropped to her sequined dress. "Is it blue now, then? After the little blue box you dream about?"

She shook her head and leaned into him. "You had it right the first time," she admitted.

"Yeah," he said, "I know."

"What are we going to do, Doctor?" she asked.

"Same thing we do every time, Rose Tyler. Try to save the world." He turned back to the crowd, feeling about a million times more hopeful.

He sent Rose to check on Mr. Copper, to try to get the old man to his feet. Meanwhile, he called the bridge. There was an answer almost immediately and the Doctor felt like rejoicing. Someone was alive, they had a chance.

Or maybe not, because the engines were dying. The Doctor knew that something had to be done, immediately. He wasn't losing these people and he wasn't, absolutely was _not _losing Rose. He gave the injured Midshipman Frame an order, and he knew the boy would take it. These people were scared, terrified, really, and terrified people usually listened when someone who knew what they were doing gave orders.

Or they panicked. "We're going to die," Foon exclaimed, and everyone else started talking around her.

The Doctor held his hands up for quiet. "Now, just first things first. One. We are gonna climb through this ship. B." Rose shot him a look and he realized. "No, Two. We are gonna reach the bridge. Three, or C, we are gonna save the Titanic. And, coming in a very low four, or D or that little iv in brackets that they use in footnotes, I am going to find out what happened to Rose." He nodded and took a deep breath, turning. "Right then, follow me."

Rose followed without hesitation, he could hear her little shoes clicking on the deck. That was something else out of place; she used to know you needed a good set of trainers to run for your life properly.

Of course, there was always that one. Slade stopped him with a sharp, "Hang on a minute. Who put you in charge? Just who the hell are you, anyway?"

He looked at Rose, half-way between him and the huddled group, looked at Slade, the haughty bastard who had no concern for anyone but himself, even now, looked at the scared and trembling rest of the group. Rose nodded encouragement at him and he walked back, taking her hand. He let go of his shields, the things that usually made him pass for human, let the weight of eons burn from his eyes. "I'm the Doctor," he announced firmly. "I'm a Time Lord. I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the Constellation of Kasterborus. I am 903 years old, and I'm the man who's going to save your lives and all six billion people on the planet below." He gave Rose a look as she stared up at him in awe and wonder. He missed the pride, but he was grateful there was no trace of the fear he'd seen the first time she saw him like this. He looked back at Slade. "You got a problem with that?" he demanded, feeling a bit like he was channelling Nine.

"No," said Slade, looking completely taken aback.

"In that case," said the Doctor, "allon-sy."

* * *

"We used to travel together," the Doctor said as the group walked hesitantly along the darkened back corridors.

Rose didn't know what to think. How come she was so important to this ancient man with star-fire eyes, from a world that no one knew? And why, when he said the name of that world, did she feel a deep, aching sadness? It was gone, that world, she realized, the world with silver trees and orange skies... "I... Gallifrey. It's..."

"Yes," he said shortly, cutting her off.

"Oh, right." She paused. "I'm sorry, Doctor. I really didn't remember!"

He nodded briefly, then brushed it aside. "Rose, I need you to tell me. What's the first thing you _do_ remember?"

"I was... lost," she said. "Trapped. Somewhere I didn't belong. Then, I woke up in hospital, back on Sto. They said I'd been there for years, since I was young."

"You're still young," the Doctor said, sounding very surprised.

"Well, I mean, since I was a little girl. It took them such a long time to find out what was wrong with me and fix me."

"This isn't right," the Doctor argued. "You were born on Earth." He whipped out the whirring thing, scanned it over her. "Yep, full-blooded, Earth-born human, with slight traces of temporal radiation in her system." He popped on a pair of those funny three-d glasses, too, and glanced at her, then whipped them back into a pocket. "Traces of Void stuff. You're Rose Tyler. You're the daughter of Pete and Jackie Tyler. Jackie would kill me if she knew you were here." He actually shivered at this pronouncement, as if he expected a slap to miraculously appear from somewhere. "How'd you escape her, anyway? Never mind crossing Universes, that's only impossible, how did you ever get away from that woman?"

Rose grinned at him. He was obviously trying to cheer her, get her to smile a little, because he grinned back at her. "Did you know my parents well?" she asked. "I... I can't even remember them."

"Your dad, not so much, but he was a hero. He saved my life and yours and a whole planet, in fact. Your mum... first time I met her, I'd known her too long in my opinion, and you would keep dragging us back to see her."

"And you went? Nine hundred years old and Time Lord and all that stuff? And you just let me drag you to see a woman you didn't like?"

He blinked at her and shrugged, his eyes saying a lot more than he ever did, but she wasn't competent to read them, not really. She didn't know him very well, even if he was obviously right, because things kept coming back to her.

He was really very nice to look at, she thought, with his youthful smile, slightly nervous handling of her, and the way his hair stuck up all over the place. "When you say we... traveled together..." She just wondered. He was beautiful and she was... well, she was young and healthy, even if they weren't the same species. Maybe?

She knew, somehow, even in the dim and blinking light of these winding back corridors, that he was blushing. "No. I mean... well... no. It just...um..." He dashed his hands through his hair and looked wildly around.

Rose didn't know how she knew that a distraction would miraculously appear, but she wasn't the slightest bit surprised when he found the door he wanted. He scanned it to make sure there was air on the other side. "It's... a screwdriver," Rose said. "And it's... sonic. Right?"

"Yep," he said.

Rose shook her head. "Who looks at a screwdriver and says 'Ooh, this could be a little more sonic?'"

"I do," he answered, with haughty, positively adorable dignity. "And I'll thank you to stop quoting your old boyfriends at me. Careful," he added, as he forced the door. "Through here."


	3. Chapter 3

**As I am a professional writer and have work to do to get paid, I have decided to deal with these thudding plot bunnies in the traditional manner - I will inflict them on others. Please see my Profile for the Challenges of the Month. July Challenges are now available, and what a twist for one of them. If you'd rather do June's, instead, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks to all those who have participated thus far - we had an exceptional turn out for June II for example. The new challenges will run through the end of July. Please let me know when you respond to a Challenge so I can read and review.**

Lady Clark Weasley asked me to do this one and, although I normally hesitate to rewrite episodes, I agreed because of the challenge of it. Let me just state, very clearly: ASTRID IS NOT HERE. Her entire story line has been erased from this history. She decides to try it once, months later, meets a rich man who acquired some manners from some where, gets married and lives happily ever after. There will be no dead or even sort of dead pretty waitresses, except the ones who would have died anyway. Thank you.

_It looks like it will be in four parts (the subplot is taking more space than I thought), and all the action isn't going to be shown because I've narrowed the point of view down to what you don't know._

* * *

**The Voyage of Alternatives**

_Part III: The Long, Strange Trip_

Making their way up the staircase was going to take time, but they could get up it with effort. Mr. Copper's commentary on Christmas traditions almost had the Doctor pulling out his hair, if for no other reason than that the others believed him, even, it seemed, Rose.

"Do they worship ghosts?" she asked after the Doctor resigned himself to the fact that his Christmases were starting to become pretty much always like this. "I think... there were ghosts, weren't there, Doctor?"

"Rose!" the Doctor exclaimed, delighted. "You remember!"

"I... no, just... ghosts and a... sword fight?"

"Yep," the Doctor agreed. Then he found the host.

He set the Von Hoffs to fixing it, since they knew how, and the rest continued until they found the passage blocked with debris. There was a hole in it, too small for anyone but the cyborg and maybe Rose to get through.

Bannakaffalatta went through straight away. The Doctor looked at Rose - the next smallest member of the party. He couldn't bear to let her out of his sight, but then he had to know what awaited them further up. She nodded firmly. "I'm going," she said. He took her hand and, with his help, Rose managed to wriggle through the hole.

* * *

Gazing around, Rose found the Bannakaffallatta had fallen and seemed too weak to move. Her heart twisted. He was so nice, and this was so hard. She didn't want to lose anyone else, not even that rotten sot Slade. "What's wrong?" she asked.

She found out he was a cyborg and that he was running low on power. "Don't tell anyone," he pleaded.

"I won't," she said softly as she arranged to get him recharged. "But you don't have to be ashamed, you know. It's not your fault, it's just who you are, and you have the same rights to exist as anyone else."

"That's not the way most people see it," he told her.

"Rose?" the Doctor shouted.

"It's fine," she called back. "Just... give us a minute."

"All right. But hurry."

She turned back to Bannakaffalatta. "I think he's always like this."

"I'd worry about you, too," the cyborg said. "Pretty girl, and so nice."

Rose smiled. "But I'm just ordinary. It's not special to be nice to people. I mean, even on Sto they're getting it straight, now. I heard before I left that they're getting cyborgs equal rights, let you get proper jobs, even get married."

The cyborg chuckled. "Yes. I'd marry a girl like you."

Rose giggled.

"Rose!" the Doctor shouted again. "What's happening!"

"I think Bannakaffalatta just proposed," she replied, looking back through the hole into the dark, strange, beautiful eyes peering up at her.

The Doctor grinned. "You and your boyfriends!" he said cheerfully. "What'd you say?"

She shrugged. "S'the best offer I've had," she said.

"Did I mention it also..." He bit his lip, stopped, turned to look back down the staircase.

"Did you mention what?" she said, something tugging at the emptiness where her memories of this man were apparently supposed to be.

"My ship," he said. "Remind me to tell you later, if you don't remember."

"All right," she agreed, and set about trying to clear the passage a bit so they could get everyone through. She didn't care what fancy Rickston thought, he wouldn't fit through now, either, the bastard.

* * *

The Doctor made a call to the bridge while Rickston the Idiot (that worked) and Mr. Copper (the deluded historian, perhaps?) continued clearing the passage and the Von Hoffs worked on the host. They, at least, seemed to be doing well, and he was happy for them, because it couldn't be easy, especially with the abuse heaped on them by the heartless bastard the Doctor couldn't even understand.

The news was bad. There were life signs all over the ship, but they were dropping as fast as Frame could detect them. The Doctor asked about the air, but the culprit turned out to be...

"It's the host, Doctor! They're killing everyone!"

The Doctor jumped down the staircase, but of course his usual very bad timing had come into play and the Von Hoffs had just gotten the host working. It immediately tried to strangle Morvin.

Who double deadlocked an android, anyway? He couldn't use the screwdriver, so the only thing left was brute force. Luckily, while the host had the strength of ten men, it had no leverage to move, and he was a Time Lord. He could, in a panic situation muster something very near that himself.

Somehow, with some pushing and shoving and quite a lot of whining from Rickston, they got the Von Hoffs through the passage. He pried some information out of the host - Deck 31 was where this disaster originated - and then he slipped through. Mr. Copper was supporting the beam practically by himself, although Rose was trying to help him. The Doctor gave a quick nod as he slipped through, and they let go of the lever they were using to support the debris. The beam fell and the host's electronic head exploded.

The Doctor slumped with relief and, as the others headed into the next area, he reached out and took Rose's hand. She smiled up at him. "You all right?" he asked.

"Yeah. How 'bout you?"

"I'm always all right," he replied.

Rose, as she had always done, laid her head on his shoulder. She never pressed, but she knew very well to never, ever believe that one.

"Look, Morvin," Foon exclaimed, "food!"

"Well, someone's happy," Rickston snapped sarcastically.

Rose Tyler was one of the most amazing women in any Universe. She was brave, beautiful, and loved without bounds. She was also Jackie Tyler's daughter. If anyone asked, the Doctor would have claimed he was too busy calling the bridge to stop her.

She moved too quickly for anything human to catch, anyway. One blink, she was leaning on the Doctor, the next, she had delivered a powerful slap to Rickston's right cheek. It made a sound like a whip crack and the Doctor turned to the computer with a smile.

Rose stood there breathing heavily and thumped Rickston in the chest. "You _can_ just shut up, you know. You don't have to comment on everything, and I think you'd be a little grateful. You're bloody useless; if it wasn't for everyone else working together to keep us all alive, you'd be a very dead git. So why don't you go over there and let the rest of us eat in peace?"

"How dare you talk to me like that!" Rickston exclaimed.

Rose balled up a fist. The Doctor appeared at her side to take her hand. He glowered at Rickston. "I wouldn't," he told Rickston forbiddingly, and took Rose's arm to lead her over to the computer.

She muttered quiet swear words under her breath and he listened to see if he recognized any of them from their travels - she'd picked up quite a vocabulary from Jack. It would have embarrassed him that the sum total of her Gallifreyan was all exotic curses, too, but there was no one left to judge them, anyway. "I'll... I'll just go get us some plates," she said after a moment. "You check with the bridge."

He grinned at her. "Yes, miss," he teased. "Thank you, miss."

"So gonna get you for that."

Really, he couldn't help it if he loved her.

* * *

When Rose came back with a plate for the Doctor, he looked very disturbed. "What's wrong?" she asked. "Here. Way you go on, you're bound to need to replenish your energy."

"Good strong cup of your mum's tea would do that," he said cheerfully, but bit into one of the potato things happily enough.

"How did you get to be 900 years old and still look like that?" she asked, as she sipped at some drink box thing Morvin had recommended. They didn't have things like this back at... never mind.

The Doctor smiled. "You know, that's one thing I thought you'd remember for the rest of your life. 'Course, that day was a bit of a haze for you, and ended up being a bit of a haze for me, so who knows."

"What day was that?" she asked.

"Two Christmases ago for me," he said. "We were... we were together. Something terrible happened."

"I..." she shook her head to try to shake something loose but all she could remember was light - lots and lots of light - and singing.

_'That's right,'_ a voice in her head replied. _'I sang a song and the Daleks ran away.'_

Her eyes widened and she dropped her drink. There it was. Her best friend, the man she loved more than anything at all and would have followed into hell itself, the one who she was never going to leave. In her mind's eye, she watched, dumbstruck and terrified, as he exploded into golden flame.

"Rose," the Doctor said urgently. "Come back, Rose!"

"I..." she brushed distractedly at her cheeks. "He died, didn't he? I remember, oh God, it _hurts_." She blinked away tears and realized that the Doctor had dropped his plate and was holding on to her arms. It was a good thing, because she felt like sinking down into a little ball and never rising again.

"No, Rose, don't think about that. He's alive, I promise you. Whoever it is you're worried about, he survived. We all made it through that day. Me, you, Mickey, Jack. Every one of us."

"But... but he didn't," she sobbed. "I loved him _so_ much, and he died and I never even got to tell him. He just... exploded."

The look he gave her in answer to this was full of sympathy, warmth, and the strangest sort of fond exasperation. "It's all right, Rose," he said, and pulled her close. "It didn't end like that at all. In fact, that was just a new beginning."

"Are... are you sure?" she asked, because she could still see it, every time she blinked. He was there, one minute, bright, broken, with beautiful blue eyes. Then, he exploded.

"I promise," the Doctor said. "Oh, it'll never end now, you'll see."

"Did... did he love me, too?" she asked.

The Doctor reached over and brushed her hair out of her face. There was something painfully familiar in that gesture. "So much it terrified him," he whispered, and drew her head down to rest on his chest.

Mr. Copper came over then with questions about the possibility of help from Earth. The Doctor made a few very strange, off-hand comments about rooms and long stories, and then asked Mr. Copper where the man had gotten his degree in Earthonomics.

It turned out they all had secrets, here. Maybe not the Von Hoffs - they seemed normal enough. And probably not Rickston - he made no secret of the fact that he was an arse. But Bannakaffalatta didn't want anyone to know he was a cyborg. The Doctor was a powerful alien, Mr. Copper got his degree practically by mail order, and Rose... Rose didn't even know what her secrets were.

The host arrived and pounded on the sealed door behind them, just as things were starting to seem a little peaceful. The Doctor opened the next bulkhead door with his screwdriver and they all piled through after him. They spread out and stared in astonishment at the obstacle before them - the ship's power supply and engines compartment, a great bloody chasm of unstoppable nuclear fire, with a single, damaged, narrow causeway across it.

"Oh, fantastic!" Rose snapped sarcastically.

The Doctor's face shifted from horror at the situation to a broad grin at her, and then to clever consideration. "Right," he ordered, "we've got to get across."

"It'll never hold us," Morvin protested.

There was a considerable argument, and Slade was still as rude as ever. Rose rounded on him and therefore missed it when Morvin leaned over the edge and, just like that, he was gone.

Foon shrieked and screamed and slipped into denial, and Rose dropped to her knees to hold the woman, knowing now, remembering, what it was like to lose someone you loved that much.

Slade went across first, Rose noted vaguely, hugging the sobbing, protesting woman. The Doctor sent Bannakaffalatta after him, then came for her. "You have to go, Rose. Now."

"But I can't leave her," she insisted.

"And we won't," he promised. "We're all going across, all of us."

"She won't go," Rose whispered. "I wouldn't."

"You're going now," he answered. "Just, please, Rose, please."

She nodded and got to her feet, trusting Foon to him. She knew he could only do so much, but if anyone had a chance to convince the sudden widow to keep living, it was him.

The ship was shaking, settling. Slade was demanding the Doctor bring the sonic screwdriver. Rose could have cursed herself - she could have gotten it, she seemed to remember having used it before for a couple of things. It even had a setting, if she remembered, for getting out of dancing.

Rose had jumped the gap and was most of the way there. The Doctor was behind Mr. Copper. Foon was staying behind, but the Doctor wouldn't leave it that way if he at all had a choice.

Then, the pounding at the door stopped. Slade looked relieved and kept demanding the screwdriver, but Rose looked back at the Doctor and wrenched the nearest bit of piping up from the causeway. The look on his face meant he was worried and a worried Doctor always meant trouble.

"We seem to have forgotten," Mr. Copper announced, suddenly and sadly, "the Christmas traditions. Angels have wings."

Above them, all around them, were the shining, white clad, golden bodied host. Rose remembered, all at once, that she had never liked it when death looked so beautiful.


	4. Chapter 4

**As I am a professional writer and have work to do to get paid, I have decided to deal with these thudding plot bunnies in the traditional manner - I will inflict them on others. Please see my Profile for the Challenges of the Month. July Challenges are now available, and what a twist for one of them. If you'd rather do June's, instead, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks to all those who have participated thus far - we had an exceptional turn out for June II for example. The new challenges will run through the end of July. Please let me know when you respond to a Challenge so I can read and review.**

Lady Clark Weasley asked me to do this one and, although I normally hesitate to rewrite episodes, I agreed because of the challenge of it. Let me just state, very clearly: ASTRID IS NOT HERE. Her entire story line has been erased from this history. She decides to try it once, months later, meets a rich man who acquired some manners from some where, gets married and lives happily ever after. There will be no dead or even sort of dead pretty waitresses, except the ones who would have died anyway. Thank you.

_It looks like it will be in four parts plus an epilogue to clear up the subplot, and all the action isn't going to be shown because I've narrowed the point of view down to what you don't know._

* * *

**The Voyage of Alternatives**

_Part IV: Journey's End_

Bannakaffalatta had given his life to save them. Foon had given her life to save the Doctor so he could save the rest of them. They'd made it through the initial crash and the trip up through the ship, but now they had lost three people in one room.

Rose felt so strange. She remembered this feeling - standing above a planet that was burning, standing in front of a door screaming to be taken back, standing in a doorway knowing her best friend had died, standing under snow that was ash, standing against a wall that killed her inside, standing on a beach that was empty. Standing, always standing, always waiting, and somehow, never quite alone.

They had a plan now. The rest of the party was to reach Reception One and send out an emergency signal. The Doctor was going to deck thirty one and find out what had caused all this in order to, hopefully, put a stop to it. Rose had charge of their only weapon, Bannakaffalatta's final gift, his power pack, that could generate an EMP pulse and stop the host.

The Doctor took her over to the nearest power port to charge it up. "Now, listen to me, Rose Tyler. I want you in one piece when all this is over, so you had best make absolutely certain to look after yourself. Have you got that?"

"Yeah, but only if you do the same, Doctor. I remember trouble seems to be in love with you or something. Follows you around like a puppy."

He grinned. "That's me, trouble magnet of the known galaxies." His grin abruptly vanished. "Not on purpose," he finished hastily.

"No," she agreed, "no one could get that much trouble on purpose."

"Do you remember me, now, Rose?" he asked, a desperate plea in his eyes. "Do you remember us?" He nudged her with an elbow, smiling that broken smile that seemed to say so much more than he did. "Stuff of legends?"

"I... Doctor, I have to tell you. They... they said I made you up."

"What?" he demanded.

"I'm insane, Doctor. Have been for most of my life."

"You are not!" he insisted. "Rose, I don't know who's been spouting all this rubbish at you, but it isn't true."

"Then why was I locked up?" she pleaded, her hands trembling. "Why did they tell me every time I mentioned you or the TARDIS or any of it that I was just imagining things?"

"So they held you somewhere and when you agreed with them, they let you go?" His eyes were blazing with fury and unstoppable alien power, but he wasn't angry at her. This was a natural phenomenon, instead, a storm building, the tidal rage all directed at those who had held her.

"No," she replied bitterly. "When I agreed with them, they gave me different drugs is all, and asked me different questions. I escaped, headed to the spaceport. All I knew is I had to get away from Sto. The cruise line was holding open auditions when I got there, so I signed up, sang a couple of Christmas carols to suit the theme, got the job. Hid out in the spaceports until departure. I was going to just keep with the company, keep traveling, until I found a way out or found something better."

"I'll take you anywhere. Every where. We'll go back to Woman Wept, you liked that. We'll go to Cardiff and maybe run into an old friend. We'll pop in to see Shakespeare, maybe figure out why Queen Bess wants my head on a plate."

"Thought that was Victoria?" Rose asked. She shook her head. Some of the things from her dreams had never made any sense, but she distinctly remembered telling one of her doctors once that Queen Victoria had banished them because they saved her life and she was an ungrateful cow.

"Her too," he agreed cheekily. "We're getting through this, we'll get back to the TARDIS, find out how you got on Sto, and..." He trailed off. "Well, I'm rubbish. I dunno what to do after that. I... I sorta dreamed about you coming back some times, but I never got past just finding you. What do you want to do?

She didn't know. Well, that wasn't true. "I want to get my memories back," she said.

"Good idea. We'll work on that."

The ship rocked and the Doctor jumped to the comm, only to find out that they had less than ten minutes to fix all of this. The Doctor handed the screwdriver over to Rickston. "Don't change the settings. Rose, don't let him lose it."

She nodded and helped Mr. Copper with the medical kit.

"Get moving!" he shouted and headed for the door.

"No, wait!" Rose answered.

"What?" he said. "Rose, you can't come with me, please just go and... be safe, please?"

"Doctor, there's something..." She shook her head. "Oh, never mind! Just, be careful, for once in your life!!"

"Right," he said. He darted back toward her, snatched her up in a tight hug, and then looked deep into her eyes. "See you soon," he promised, so softly, resting his forehead briefly on hers. His lips brushed hers tentatively, delicately, sipping and savoring at once. He pulled away so quickly, and his tongue flicked over his lower lip, as if collecting the taste. With that, and a quick jerk of his head, he pounded off back the way they had come.

Rose touched a trembling hand to her lips, where his cool mouth had brushed them so lightly she could hardly claim to have felt it. "Doctor," she whispered, "I remember."

* * *

The Doctor took the stairs at his usual run-for-your-life pace, his mind whirling at far faster speeds. He probably should have kissed her properly, just in case it was a real good-bye. But she would have remembered it this time, she would be aware of it and he wasn't sure what he was supposed to do in that instance. This body had been spun into existence with the taste of her on his lips, but she would never remember why. Even confronted with the Daleks, all she had ever remembered, as far as he knew, was that she had ended the Time War.

Why didn't he do it, though? He'd wanted to kiss her, probably since she pulled that Tarzan stunt to rescue him all those years ago. He'd hardly even remembered he was the Doctor until he took her hand, but she'd saved him anyway, saved him in ways even he was staggered to try to comprehend. It was so much to think about, really. He'd had so many ideas, so many dreams, what it would be like to find her again, what he would say, what she would want.

He'd occasionally tempted himself with such mad ideas as a house with carpets in Croydon or Cardiff. He'd occasionally thought of just traveling together hand in hand for all eternity, as impossible as it seemed. Once, he'd woke screaming from the image of her under an orange sky at sun rise, wrapped in his arms in a grove of silver trees.

He'd never thought he'd just find her, wandering lost on a doomed space liner. He wished...

He didn't have time for wishing, because the host had him suddenly surrounded, and it was time to find a way to get dragged into the presence of the mastermind behind this farce, time to save the Earth and time to save his Rose.

* * *

Rose glanced at the teleport bracelets and knew what she had to do. She called Midshipman Frame on the Bridge and, with some clever talk and liberal use of the phrase 'needs someone with him', she persuaded him to transfer energy to the teleport, enough to get her down to Deck 31.

The Doctor was busy with what could only be the ruins of Max Capricorn. Rose frantically looked around for some solution. There was the forklift, but that was just a fleeting notion, she couldn't drive one of the things, no chance, not with a life spent in the Asylum. Even if it wasn't real, even if she had a real life outside, before, she couldn't remember ever having driven anything in her life. Besides, he could see something like that coming and have time to get the host - with the strength of ten men - to stop her.

The Doctor's frantic words now turned to anger at the man who was determined to finish off the ship and kill the world beneath them. All this just for money, all this death, all this tragedy, just because one person thought what they wanted was more important than anyone else at all.

She had seen a lot of it, in the life she half-remembered, both before the Doctor and after she'd met him. The Doctor had never agreed with it, spent his life fighting all kinds of terror and nightmares that, more often than not boiled down to simple greed. And he always blamed himself, even when there was no way in which any of it was his fault.

_Everything has its time and everything dies._

Max Capricorn sang out orders for the host to hold the Doctor and kill him. Rose ran forward as the host prepared to fling the fatal halo disk at the Doctor. "No, wait!" she shouted.

"Rose!!" the Doctor protested, writhing in the grips of the robots holding him.

"Kill her first," Capricorn commanded.

Rose nodded. "Yeah," she said, "give it a go."

The host turned to follow her pace. It flung the disk at her, but she ducked and rolled. She stopped, right in front of the Capricorn bot. One of the hosts clutching the struggling Doctor threw the halo disk at her. Rose stood still and fearless. She had to keep the view blocked... The disk was coming toward her, the Doctor was shouting commands and curses and pleas for her life.

Rose dropped at the last possible second, executed a quick somersault. There was a sudden, wailing "No!!", a horrible crunching noise, and then a machine silence, the soft version of the sound of a flat-line monitor. Completing her move, Rose kicked the Doctor's legs out from under him. The host, not having expected the maneuver, lost their grips on him.

He jumped for her and snatched her close, apparently not caring what the host were doing. "Jericho St. Junior School Under-sevens gymnastics team," he breathed into her hair.

"Got the bronze," she agreed, shakily, and then she burst into tears.

"Hey, none of that, now," he said, rubbing her back in strong circles. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

"No, no, I just..." She dashed tears from her face. "I'm sorry."

He tilted her face up. "Rose Tyler, do you fancy a trip in the arms of an angel?"

"I already am," she said. He blinked at her in surprise, so she mustered a smile. "S'what Reinette called you, innit?"

He brushed the tears from her face. "Yeah, maybe," he agreed. "But you know me better than that."

They both pointedly avoided looking at the bot that had been Max Capricorn as they got to their feet. Rose fished the sonic screwdriver from her pocket and handed it over. There was a quick whirring and the sounds of the machinery that had supported the disembodied head were silenced.

Then, the Doctor snapped his fingers. The host that had been holding him prisoner before took his arms again. Two more appeared at her side. Then, they were both lifted up. Rose only had eyes for the Doctor as they were flown up the engine shaft. He looked like he was supposed to look, bathed in fire and stillness. She shook her head. It was time to finish this and save the world.

* * *

Rose leaned back against the counter, watching as Rickston hugged the Doctor and told him how rich he now was. Mr. Copper stood next to her and shook his head.

The Doctor left Slade with the Midshipman and joined Rose and Mr. Copper. "Now, if you could have chosen anyone to survive," observed Mr. Copper, "he wouldn't have been the one. But if you could choose who lives and who dies, you'd be a god."

"And a vengeful one," Rose agreed.

"Don't worry," the Doctor said. "Rickston the Idiot may grow up someday. It's happened before." He smiled. "And now, I think it's time we left. Mr. Copper, you probably shouldn't be here when the authorities arrive, either. Teleport for three?"

Mr. Copper stared at them in happy disbelief and wonder. "I... oh, thank you!!"

Rose grinned and leaned into the Doctor. "Teleport for three," she said, and it sounded absolutely wonderful.

* * *

They sent Mr. Copper off with a rather large fortune on a credit card that would never be a problem. He promised to make them both proud.

The Doctor led her to the TARDIS. "It's time we got you back, Rose Tyler," he said.

"The TARDIS," she agreed and, from around her neck, she fished a long, silver chain. On the end of it hung the key he had given her years ago, the key that was more than just a TARDIS key between them. Jack had one, Martha had one, but Rose's - hers was special, because he gave it to her to mean she could share his life. He took it back once in a moment of feeling betrayed. He gave it back again because it belonged with her, a small part of the TARDIS to keep with her always. And, of course, the TARDIS now kept a small part of her. "No one ever noticed it. Sometimes, if I wished hard enough, they didn't even notice me." She looked up from it and held it up for him to see. "This is the right key, isn't it?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. "Oh, yes." He watched with awe and delight as Rose unlocked the door as if she'd last done it yesterday. He had to fight off the urge to snatch her up and carry her inside. She lived here, she belonged here, she was with him, again, at last, his precious girl. Instead, he flung open the doors. "Rose Tyler, welcome home."

_A/N: If I had written this, this is where it would end. The whole season would be spent with sorting out Rose's memory, trying to find out what happened to her, as part of the back story. Donna would still travel with them, but some episodes would change drastically, some would be more painful than ever, and some would be weird and a couple would be replaced. And don't get me started on what Rose would say to Sylvia. No one would blather on about Medusa Cascades every episode because, I'm sorry, they have A) overdone and B) wasted the whole "over-arching theme" bit on this one._

_However, I've no intention of doing that. So I'm doing the big reveal all at once, how I imagine this could have happened. Go ahead and flip the chapter._


	5. Epilogue

**As I am a professional writer and have work to do to get paid, I have decided to deal with these thudding plot bunnies in the traditional manner - I will inflict them on others. Please see my Profile for the Challenges of the Month. July Challenges are now available, and what a twist for one of them. If you'd rather do June's, instead, I'd love to hear from you. Thanks to all those who have participated thus far - we had an exceptional turn out for June II for example. The new challenges will run through the end of July. Please let me know when you respond to a Challenge so I can read and review.**

Lady Clark Weasley asked me to do this one and, although I normally hesitate to rewrite episodes, I agreed because of the challenge of it. Let me just state, very clearly: ASTRID IS NOT HERE. Her entire story line has been erased from this history. She decides to try it once, months later, meets a rich man who acquired some manners from some where, gets married and lives happily ever after. There will be no dead or even sort of dead pretty waitresses, except the ones who would have died anyway. Thank you.

_This is it, the epilogue. And, that's all she wrote._

* * *

**The Voyage of Alternatives**

_Epilogue: Better With Two_

"Rose?" the Doctor asked, standing with his hands in his brown suit pockets in the doorway of her room. "We need to talk. I just made tea. Join me?"

"Yeah, all right," she agreed, and stood from where she had been going over the photo albums, trying to sort out what was her actual memory from what was drug induced confusion. The Doctor had left her in peace for that, and offered to answer if she had any questions. So far she hadn't asked any, but he was mentally preparing himself for when she asked to see her mum.

Instead, when he sat down with her in the kitchen, placing her favorite mug in front of her, she shook her head. "They're in the parallel world, aren't they?" she asked. "And the walls are closed."

"That's right," he agreed softly. "And I'm sorry. But I need to know how you got here. Because you shouldn't have been able to do, or I would have come for you a long time ago."

"I..." She looked up from her tea and stared into his eyes, again trying to read things no one else could ever see. He let her. "I remember the beach," she said.

"Oh," he answered faintly. "I..."

"No, I just wanted you to know," she cut him off. "It was so important, you know, worst day of my life."

"And mine. Well, that was when you fell. Next worst."

"I tried to hold on."

"I know," he answered, and cupped the trembling hand that rested on the table between them. "Just... try not to think about it. You're here, now, and that's what matters. But I do need to know how it happened. Make sure nothing's going to crack like an egg."

"Someone found me," she answered at last. "Someone who could time travel. He isolated the causal nexus that generated Pete's World, and he crossed the nexus. Then he came forward and he found me."

"But... but that's brilliant. I'd say impossible, but obviously not. Ooh, it would take a genius like... well, like me. But once I crossed the nexus, I couldn't come for you - the TARDIS can't travel in Pete's World, in time or space. But someone positively brilliant, to track you and follow the nexus back. And then to bring you back here. Who could possibly..."

"It was Dalek Caan," Rose whispered.

"What?!" the Doctor bellowed. He jumped up from the seat and stared at her, trying to decide if he was horrified or terrified or if he owed a Dalek a hug. "Why?"

"All the wrong reasons, at first," she admitted. "He was there, when I told Dalek Sec what I did to the Emperor. Sec kept track of me, so they knew I was trapped. Then, they ended up in New York. As soon as they rebuilt their army, they were going to come for me, because I'm an enemy of the Daleks, like you. But then Sec got distracted and he and the rest got assassinated. Caan told me you offered to help him."

"Yes..." the Doctor admitted. He didn't think she would think it wrong, but just in case, he added, "I... I couldn't see anyone else, anyone at all, die that day. I just couldn't."

"I understand, Doctor," she said urgently. Then she frowned. "Caan actually believed you. But he wanted you to help him on his terms, not yours, so he came for me, believing he could harness whatever power I used to destroy the Emperor and, if not, he could still hold me hostage for your behavior."

"It would have worked," the Doctor confessed, grimly. "I... I wouldn't have..."

"It's all right, Doctor, it didn't happen that way." She took a gulp of her tea, then toyed with the mug nervously. "He... they brought him in to Torchwood. Thankfully, everyone who knew what a Dalek was wasn't there that day, except me. I saw him and I was going to blow him to hell, but he was so weak and there was a hole in his casing."

"Sec borrowed bits of their casing for his experiments. What he replaced it with wasn't anywhere near as indestructible as Dalekanium."

"And you know me," she continued deprecatingly.

"Rose, you didn't!!" the Doctor exclaimed.

"Stupid ape," she said as she nodded. "I... he was so wretched, Doctor. I didn't think."

"Obviously not," he said hotly. He jerked his hands through his hair, couldn't imagine what he was going to do with her. "You know what happened last time, you know what happens every time you're near one, and you just HAD to go and _touch_ it!!"

She sighed. "I know. But... it was weird, this time. He was already pretty far gone, Doctor. And he just looked at me, and he didn't shoot anyone, and he said 'Thank you, Rose Tyler'. I figured he was about to die or something, but then he started all that recharging stuff. I sent the others into the bunker, I was scared as I have ever been in my entire life. But when he was done, he just sat there and flashed at me. Then, I decided he must not be one of the killing machines in this Universe, but something from Pete's World that was different."

"That's..." the Doctor started, about to say ridiculous. But what she said actually registered before he got it out. He sat down hard. In a soft, thoroughly awed tone, he said, "That's actually brilliant." He swallowed hard, then continued rapidly, "Oh, and just so YOU, Rose Tyler, so very, very you. Give anyone the benefit of the doubt, you, even a Dalek, even me."

She shrugged and sighed. "He told me what he had seen - a causal nexus across the Void has the distinct disadvantage of showing you things that can be and won't be and couldn't be and never should. Almost the opposite of time travel. He'd seen the Daleks, what they are, what they were, what they'll always be, and he wanted something from me. Because I've destroyed the entire race before. And he wants me to do it again."

"I won't let it happen," he declared, firmly. "We'll find him and we'll do what we can to fix this situation before it gets started."

She finally met his gaze, briefly, but the quick glimpse of her haunted hazel eyes hurt so very much. "It's too late, Doctor," she told the table top. "Everything is already in motion. He made a mistake on the way back here. There's time, still, but the noose is tightening."

"You're still in touch with him?" the Doctor demanded, utterly floored.

"He's part me," she replied with a grim shake of her head. "But no, I lost contact with him right after they started drugging me on Sto. We were separated during the last temporal shift, and they found me and locked me away because I was glowing and giving off funny radiation. Caan's lost his mind, Doctor. Whatever happened to him, he's broken beyond all hope of repair. That was the last I heard from him - that he'd made a mistake and the darkness was coming."

"We'll stop it, Rose," he told her, with more strength of conviction than he really felt. "No one has to die for this. We're going to find your friend and keep the darkness where it belongs. He brought you back to me. I was going to help before, but that's more than enough reason for me to do everything in my power to make this situation better."

"I really hope you're right," she said.

He reached over and tilted her head up. "Course I'm right. I'm the Doctor. And when you're with me, I can do anything."

She smiled, slowly, tentatively, as if she really didn't know what her place in his life really was. "You mean that?"

How could he not? He hadn't even wanted to live without her. Without Donna's timely intervention, he probably wouldn't have done. "So much it terrifies me," he said.

Then, because he was the Doctor, and more so, because he was this Doctor, he bounced to his feet to shake it all away. He snatched her hand. "C'mon," he exclaimed excitedly. "We've got a whole Universe to search through. And stuff like this..." He trailed off, grinning manically.

"What?" she asked, nearly bouncing herself, a beautiful grin lighting her face up, and the whole room in turn, like sunshine.

He smiled down at her and drew her into a hug. "It's always better with two."


End file.
